a pound of flesh, a dash of blood

Yup, I'm still here!

The new Flesh & Blood IPA from Dogfish Head sounds delightful. Witness:

heavyweight champion of the World Wide Stout

I do loves me some World Wide Stout from Dogfish Head, but hadn't heard this bit of history before:



Former Heavyweight (ABV) Champion of the World, and still respected hardcore veteran.

D.N.A. - Delaware Native Ale

While I have a baseline level of fandom for Dogfish Head that is well established, and so may be biased here, I am vastly impressed at how they harnessed the Delware community for their new Delaware Native Ale. In particular, I adore their isolation of a "native" Delware yeast strain from the environment to ferment the brew as an awesome bit of science.

Dogfish Head 2011 release schedule

Dogfish Head's 2011 release schedule is posted here. A few notes:

• This year reflects some excellent choices in terms of marketing and availability of their different beer niches. I particularly applaud the inclusion of both the Midas Touch and Palo Santo Marron as seasonal brews with year-round availability - both are unique drinks to Dogfish, being both some of their best beers and staples that define the company in the growing craft beer marketplace. Also, I get better access to two of my favorites, so THERE. Nyah. :P
• The categories they've made to segregate the "intermittent but not seasonal" releases are rather inspired (such as the "Ancient Ales" and "Agreeable IPA's") and hopefully will be something they build on in future years.
• I am confident enough in my beer geekdom to note that I am looking forward with bated breath to the unveiling of Brand X. YES.

Raise your glasses, baby.

Robot Brewery Tour

I'll let Dogfish Head's site speak for itself on this one:

'Robot Brewery Tour,' a short film starring Dogfish Head's Sam Calagione and actor/musician Will Oldham premiered at the 2010 Off-Centered Film Fest at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas on Saturday, April 17th.

This film stars the musician and actor Will Oldham as a reporter and brewery founder Sam Calagione as a robot. It's a brewery tour film wrapped around a dystopian vision of a near future in which robots have taken over Dogfish Head and reduced our diverse and colorful American craft brewing landscape to a monochromatic world of a single commoditized generic beer. Scary stuff!

This story almost came to life here in the U.S. during the 1970s until small, independent craft breweries, like Dogfish Head and so many others, revitalized the domestic beer scene.

Will Oldham is a Kentucky-based singer, musician and actor who has performed under a few variations of the Palace name, including Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, Palace Music, and simply Palace. He is currently touring under the Bonnie Prince Billy moniker and has performed at Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats at least twice in the past decade - most recently in April of 2010 when 'Robot Brewery Tour' was shot on location at Dogfish's Milton, Delaware brewery. Want to read more about Will? Check out this article from The New Yorker.

Brilliant satire? Scathing social commentary? Or just mildly amusing buffoonery? You be the judge:

Dogfish Head 2010 Beer Releases

Dogfish Head has put up their scheduled beer releases for 2010:

Year Round Beers

• 90 Minute IPA
• 60 Minute IPA
• Raison D'Etre
• Indian Brown Ale
• Palo Santo Marron
• Midas Touch Golden Elixir

Seasonal Beers

• Spring:Aprihop (available in March & April)
• Summer:Festina Peche (available in June & July)
• Autumn:Punkin' Ale (available in September & October)
• Winter:Chicory Stout (available in November & December)

Occasional Rarities (limited quantites, while supplies last)

• 120 Minute IPA (released in May, August & December)
• Burton Baton (released in March, July & November)
• Red & White (released in February)
• Black & Blue (released in March)
• Squall IPA (released in March & September)
• Immort Ale (released in April)
• My Antonia (released in April & November)
• Sah'tea (released in June)
• Theobroma (released in July)
• Chateau Jiahu (released in August)
• Pangaea (released in September)
• Olde School Barleywine (released in October)
• World Wide Stout (released in November)
• Fort (released in December)

The above is also available as a full color pdf calendar. It's clear that their recent brewery expansion is paying off in terms of capacity, as they have an impressive roster of their "occasional rarities" that they intend to keep producing. While I'm mildly disappointed that the Raison D'Extra continues to be on production hiatus, the fact that the excellent Palo Santon Marron has a place on their year-round list more than makes up for that.

The one new offering this year is the My Antonia, which is a continually-hopped Imperial Pilsner with an ABV of 7.5%. A bit of history from their site:

Sam brewed My Antonia at Birra del Borgo (hope you can read Italian) outside Rome, Italy with owner/brewer Leonardo DiVencenzo in October of 2008.

My Antonia (named after the Willa Cather read), is a continually-hopped imperial pilsner. This beer was brewed and distributed by Birra del Borgo. A small quantity was sent over to the United States.

In June of 2009, Leonardo came over to Delaware and brewed our Namaste beer with us at our Rehoboth Beach brewpub. What goes around, comes around.

And... for 2010, we plan to brew and package My Anotonia for the U.S. market! The beer will be released in both April and November.

Dogfish has released several iterations of the Imperial Pilsner style over the last few years, including the (unfortunately named) Golden Shower, Golden Revolution, and Golden Era. Having sampled both the Shower and the Era in the past, I know they can nail this style well. At least there's just "a few" other quality beers to tide me over until April...